Triangulation system.

摘要

Multiple light detection channels (19-1 to 19-4, 21-1 to 21-4) are introduced into a flying spot optical triangulation ranging system to increase the speed of acquiring range values. A laser beam (L) is rapidly swept across a surface (11) by a beam deflector (16). Each fiber optic channel can receive light only from a different point (24-1 to 24-4) along a line at the intersection of the swept beam with the surface. The receiver channels are duplicated and separate detectors (21-1 to 21-4) generate signal pulses at times that are a function of range to the surface. These are processed in parallel to calculated N range values per beam sweep, where N is the number of channels.